Howard's knee a concern as Magic face Spurs tonight
Dwight Howard went through a limited practice on Wednesday, and neither Howard nor the Magic could definitely say the all-star center would play Thursday against the San Antonio Spurs.
"Hopefully, it depends on how I feel," Howard said.
Howard missed the final two games of the club's road trip last week.
Coach Stan Van Gundy is counting on Howard playing against the Spurs, but won't know more until it's determined how Howard responds to Wednesday's workout. Van Gundy said Howard is being fitted for a knee brace, and will wear it in practices.
Howard tried to label his knee injury "a bruise" that he sustained during the game at Phoenix last week, but later said that he's had inflammation in it off and on this season. He was held out of several practices earlier this season.
The club said he took an MRI on Tuesday that revealed nothing serious, other than the arthritis and inflammation previous tests have showed.
"It's not bothering me right now," Howard said. "I don't think it's going to be a problem that will stop me from doing the things I do best."
Howard doesn't think having to manage the injury and sit out practices will affect him the rest of the season.
"No, I don't think so," he said. "We just run the whole practice. We do all our work before and after practice individually. I don't think that will be a problem."
Shooting guard Mickael Pietrus also returned to practice Wednesday, but said he likely will not play Thursday. Pietrus has missed nine games with a torn ligament in his thumb.
For the complete game preview from Yahoo! Sports of tonight's game, which will be nationally televised on TNT, click here
The Magic are favored by 3 1/2 points.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 5:25 AM
2 Comments:
At 5:40 PM,
Big Figure said…
Whether dwight plays or not i expect a magic victory. Hopefully the guys can build off the trip and keep up the solid play. Couple things (1) The spurs really dont offer anything we cant handle,none of their perimeter players post and timmy is no where near the player he used to be even though he can still put up numbers. (2)Containing the dribble penetration will be key either forcing bad shots or dwight blocks at the rim. At some point they'll become one demensional which should ignite our run game.
At 7:10 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Since the Spurs played a hard-fought game against the Hornets last night and had to travel to Orlando afterward, the Magic would be smart to push the ball upcourt to try and wear down the Spurs as the game goes on.
Hopefully Tony Parker won't go off and have a huge night.
I'm not so sure of a Magic win if DH doesn't play; hopefully he's available tonight.
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